Nigeria’s Senate on Wednesday turned down legislation mandating the electronic relay of election results, preserving the poll agency’s leeway to choose transmission methods amid fears of technical snags and calls for greater transparency to curb alleged tampering.
The rebuff targeted a proposed tweak to the Electoral Act’s Clause 60, Subsection 3, which would have compelled presiding officers to upload outcomes straight from polling stations to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s online portal in real time, post-signing by agents.
The rejected provision would have legally compelled INEC presiding officers to electronically transmit results from each polling unit directly to the result viewing portal (IREV) in real time.
This was to be done immediately after the prescribed Form EC8A had been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by party agents.
Instead of the proposed reform, the Senate opted to retain the controversial existing provision of the Electoral Act.
